


Ultimate Drama Club Production of Despair

by Meteors



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Gen, Meme Kidz Fic Jam 2013
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-16 01:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meteors/pseuds/Meteors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Meme Kidz made me do it.</p><p>Drama Club was never so Despairing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Setting a Very Despairing Stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything begins somewhere. Daisoujou.

 

When someone thought of drama in the halls of Hope’s Peak Academy I, the Hope’s Peak Academy campus directly across the highway from Hope’s Peak Academy II, they thought of a few outstanding faces. The first and foremost was likely the odd team that taught the class, Sakura Oogami, who managed all the stage productions and taught the dramatic side of the class and was a respected martial artist, and Aoi Asahina, the do-everything member of the faculty who managed to teach the set design elements of theater along with coaching both swimming teams, the soccer team, the basketball team, and the chess club.

It was truly a sight to be beheld when the towering drama teacher began to instruct her class in silly pre-production exercises while the smaller teacher hauled gallons of paints backstage and still managed to play along with whatever was going on. They had both been in theater at Hope’s Peak I (back before there was ever a Hope’s Peak II) and had become fast friends. Even throughout their upper level education at Hope’s Peak Academy University, they had remained strong friends and made a solemn vow to teach the majesty of theater to one and all.

The both of them were hailed as the best instructors nationally, but despite numerous job offers, they never budged from Hope’s Peak. Rumor around school stated that Oogami had made tons of money as a martial artist and actually taught some of the legends today and Asahina would regularly show up to professional sporting contests and claim top prize whenever she ran low on cash and they both funded the entire theater program themselves. Rumor also had it in Hope’s Peak that the catwalks above the theater were haunted by the ghost of a legendary biker and a thousand year old monk, so it became obvious that whoever was starting rumors just did it for fun and wasn’t very good at it.

However, there were still more names to consider when the theater department was brought up. Mukuro Ikusaba was the oldest member of the class and had been in theater since she had enrolled as a freshman alongside her sister, Junko. Back in the beginning, the drama club was large and robust, but that was all until the Most Despair Inducing Event in Drama Club History took place. A lot of the members left or outright moved to another school, and Junko became withdrawn. The younger sibling had been one of the true stars of the Drama Club, even when compared to her sister. She was very kind in person, but on stage she was known for playing some of the cruelest villains in fiction so well that even adults in the audience shivered and got uncomfortable.

Today however, Junko spends most of her time in Drama Club playing with her Monobear plush and painting sets. She still wishes to be involved with theater, but proclaims herself no longer the number one actor in the school but rather the number one Monobear Collector in the world.

Another up and coming member of the drama club is Kiyotaka Ishimaru. As a member of the disciplinary committee alongside Mukuro, he was drafted in after the Most Despair Inducing Event in Drama Club History due to his intense passion. Rumor has it that Sakura Oogami noticed him laying down the law to a student for chewing gum and running in the halls and immediately cupped her mouth and whispered _King Lear_ under her breath. Then again, most rumors around this school are garbage and Ishimaru claims Mukuro simply asked him to join since they were very short on members.

Ishimaru’s strength on stage comes with playing verbose, passionate characters, but his weakness comes when he has to turn the passion down. During an introductory skit to incoming freshman, he was to play the role of “Passionate Student A” whose lines centered around listing the good qualities of Hope’s Peak I and getting the new kids energized. By the time he was half way down the list of good qualities, he began to cry and yell uncontrollably about how wonderful the school and everyone in it was. Oogami had to practically pry him from the stage but luckily for the Drama Club, the audience howled with laughter and rated the skit highly due to “The Yelly Guy Being So Funny About School.”

However, Ishimaru truly shines off stage. His attention to detail in casting, script editing, and blocking (that’s onstage movement for the uninitiated) is second only to his teacher. Still, his passion often gets in the way when things don’t go exactly as planned and it’s up to other students to help him out. He often can’t stand due to the shock.

The other members of the Drama Club include Mondo Oowada, Ishimaru’s next door neighbor and best friend since birth. He’s a tough dude who leads a gang of students on motorbikes that roam around town “cleaning it up” among other duties. He joined shortly after Ishimaru did and despite bursts of stage fright, he’s a pretty decent actor.

Chihiro Fujisaki, another one of Ishimaru and Mondo’s ilk, is perhaps the worst actor in the history of Hope’s Peak. Whenever Chihiro gets very nervous on stage due to an unresponsive or rude crowd, they begin to sweat and breathe heavily. Stage fright isn’t what makes them the worst, if left on stage too long, Fujisaki gets anxious and then belligerent against any heckling or smug crowd members and has to be stopped before props on stage get thrown. Chihrio however, found a home right away with Aoi Asahina and is tops when it comes to managing lights and special effects.

Two other members of what remains of the Drama Club after the Most Despair Inducing Event in Drama Club History are Fukawa, a very reserved student who mumbles every line but turns bad scripts into great scripts, and Togami. He’s a nice guy and well liked by everyone, but his appearance gets him typecast as the villain in every play. He’s been bred to carry himself elegantly like how the affluent should, but he’s also been bred to be very kind to everyone because, as his parents have stressed, the wealthy should set an example because without moral wealth, you may as well be broke. His highlights on stage include playing Jafar and then apologizing that he stole the lamp.

Other students come and go for various productions they find special interest in, but it’s these seven students that keep everything rolling. The Drama Club’s popularity took a big hit when The Event happened, and many students are too weary to even chance ending up like anyone who was a part of that production. Rumor has it, and it must be taken with a heap of salt, that The Event was so horrible that the Headmaster of Hope’s Peak I clutched his heart and fell over dead after seeing such a horrible event. However, Headmaster Kirigiri was supposedly back on the job that following Monday and claimed that what took place really set off his indigestion which bothers him from time to time. This embarrassed his daughter Kyouko Kirigiri who secretly wished that it would have been less embarrassing for him to have kicked the bucket than tell all of her friends at school about his acid reflux and “problems with Mexican food after 8:00 pm.”

The cast of the Drama Club would grow and shrink and grow again over the coming months as the spring play showing was the next on the docket. A script from years ago would play the starring role in spurring the wild ride that would envelope both Hope’s Peak I and Hope’s Peak II. A brutal rivalry would break out amongst the two schools and deceit, manipulation, and other heinous acts would set the stage for despair. However, will the hope born of the Drama Club be enough to overcome it?


	2. A Very Despairing Find

“I would like to begin by applauding you all for your hard work this winter.” Sakura Oogami said pacing in front of a large chalkboard. It was covered with a list of positives and negatives from the club’s production of an original script written by Touko Fukawa which was supposed to be a romantic coming of age story about a brute who overcame his controlling father in order to date a poorer girl.

The teacher shattered another piece of chalk in her strong hands and chuckled to herself a bit. “I wish these pieces of chalk were reinforced with steel. I feel half of our budget is gone because I keep breaking these small pieces of chalk into dust.” She paused and looked towards the back of the room and smiled. “However it would be Miss Asahina who literally eats away at our budget. Did all of you know that each morning she buys two boxes of donuts for snacks and eats them both on the way here?”

The class laughed knowing this to be the stone cold truth. The only time they had ever actually gotten donuts was the one day out of the year their set teacher had been sick. The class had been literally beside itself with the bounty of sugared treats they had.

“Hey! It’s not my fault! Donuts are…they’re like a lot smaller than they should be, you know?” Asahina pretended to act hurt but she then muttered something about prying them from her cold dead hands if everyone wanted them so freaking badly.

Ishimaru stood up from the circle everyone had been sitting in and bowed his head. “I would like to add a negative to the list!” He said with a nearly robotic rhythm. He paused as all eyes turned on him. He bit into his fist and tears began to form in his eyes. “I took one step stage left and corrected because I was supposed to go stage right on page 17! I failed us all! I’m so sorry!”

Being the tight knit group they were, the Drama Club all frowned and felt Ishimaru’s pain even though it was a relatively minor point. That was the thing about such a club, whatever odd hang-ups people had about their performance were treated with respect, even if they’re delivery was a little odd. Due to being such a small group, everyone grew on each other quickly and the only snide comments made weren’t truly snide at all. They were all just jokes.

“Yes! I am so sorry!” Ishimaru bellowed. “I am sorry I took one step in the one direction! Thank goodness I did not sneeze backstage during intermission!” He immediately turned his tears (which honestly were real) back into his eyeballs and smiled cheekily at Fukawa who turned her head away.

“I-I don’t know what you mean Ishimaru…you…you’re the real monster here. Filthy…filthy monster…” She almost sounded truly insulting for a moment, but the awkward grin on her face proved that she was just as much a goof as the rest of them.

Togami looked honestly a little upset. “Guys please…we don’t need to turn on each other like this…we’re only human, we all make mistakes.” He adjusted his glasses and smiled in a caring way. “We’ll just promise to do better next time.”

There was an awkward silence that followed, but it was soon shattered by everyone laughing. Togami had learned to laugh too, these people were never mean, even if they got a little stressed around the time of a performance, and he had learned to “cut back” a little bit. It was truly a fun experience hanging out with these “cool kids” or so he said.

Oogami smiled and waved her arm. “Enough, enough. You all truly did quite well, our attendance was actually up on nights two and the final evening, so the Theater Department is actually recovering its numbers. I owe thanks entirely to you.” She smiled gently and nodded her head. “Now onto one more matter before we get into deciding our next script, I believe there is something we must discuss. Oowada?”

Mondo froze and clenched his teeth. He knew he was about to get his just desserts here and now. “Y-yeah? W-What…what d’you want teach? I…I was just about to go to the bathroom.”

It was Mukuro who spoke now. “Mondo…the play was supposed to be a romantic story…but…your behavior.” She had on that eerily distant look she always had on, but it melted into a soft smile. “Way to turn it into a romantic comedy.”

The entire room howled and Mondo hid his face behind his sleeve. “C’mon! I got nervous with all the lights and junk! And like my bro was there! He was like!” He kicked his feet and buried his pomp in his arm.

Fukawa soured a bit and rubbed her forehead. “It was…i-it was supposed to be a magic embrace when  the boy breaks free of his father’s bonds and…and he finds true love.” She then rubbed the back of her head. “All you had to do was hold me for two minutes….not drop me mid way and then run off…Mondo…”

Everyone laughed again and Ishimaru slapped Mondo on the back. “I’m sorry ok! C’mon Fukawa I said I was sorry! It was an accident!”

“An…an accident that happened three times!” Fukawa said adjusting her glasses nervously. “At least we put that pad on the stage so I didn’t end up with a concussion…”

The doors opened and Chihiro entered the classroom and waved to everyone. “I left my backpack in the control room on the night of the last show…and I found these stashed in there this morning! Here!”

The class went into an uproar. Donuts! Chihiro had found where their teach had been stashing the goods. Much to her chagrin, they tore apart both boxes of donuts and calmed down. It was time to get down to business anyway just as Junko came from the backroom with a box of scripts. Her Monobear hair clips complimented her Monobear plush which matched her Monobear socks which went well with her Monobear cellphone case. She sat the box of potential scripts down and sat next to her sister in the circle.

“Monobear and I were looking through the scripts and he thinks this would be good.” Junko said nodding to the bear. “Monobear has good taste.”

“Yes, good work Junko.” Oogami said nodding. “These are some of our older scripts. I feel we’ve been using a lot of original work, which is very good, you are all very talented…but a change of pace is always appreciated.” She closed her eyes and sifted through the scripts. “We’ve got a few minutes left of class, so we can gather some of them and talk about potential ideas tomorrow…however there is one script that may be in the box that I would like overlooked if at all possible.”

The students began to sift through the box. They were actually scripts from years ago that students had made and marked up themselves. A couple of them had even been performed until recently…after The Event.

“I think this could be nice!” Chihiro said. “This script looks like it’s about a school of fishes. I think we could rig up a cool water effect for a background! Yeah…wow! This could be something beautiful to look at!” With much vigor, they looked through the last few pages and Chihiro froze. “D-donuts?”

Togami adjusted his glasses and flipped through the pages. “The person who made this…Miss Asahina? You? T-this is your work?!” He tried to put on his best smile as if to say she had done a good job, but the entire script was rubbish. It was basically a regular school day but everyone dressed up like a fish, made a few aquatic puns, then had donuts each day for snacks. A note on the back, likely written by the former student herself said ‘ _It’s like a slice of life but for fish! We can do it underwater, I got this.”_

“Hey! Wow! Yeah let’s do this!” Aoi said. “I got mad when the rest of the class shot it down.” She then laughed and came clean. “I really just wanted to use the theater budget for free snacks for everyone and for like a giant pool! I was wanting to train for the swim team and act at the same time…a lot of people got upset I guess.”

Junko dug up another one and tilted her head and flipped through it. She looked a little shocked at first then flipped through the pages quickly. “Ishimaru? Huh?” Ishimaru poked his head up and raised an immense eyebrow. “Yes? What is it? Does something need to be done? Do you need a band-aid for a papercut?”

“Huh…no. But…look at this. It’s a play by someone... It’s. It’s really.” She held Monobear up and made him “talk” so to speak. “It’s very _you_ , Ishimaru, upupupupu!”

The script Ishimaru dug through had been written by his mother many years ago in order to woo his father. It was a very, very, very dry piece about a very orderly workplace that is thrown into chaos by a rule breaking new employee who must be taken down by a stern, by the books manager. Ishimaru knew this story well as it was what would eventually lead to his parents’ marriage. A tear began to form in his eye.

“Ishimaru is crying…at that script?” Fukawa said leaning over and snatching it. “It says it’s a love story…” Her interest spiked . “Oh…o-oh this…” Her expression went blank and she bit one of her braids. “Nothing happens. This is…this makes no sense! People…people want to feel passion not…a Human Resources meeting! It’s. It’s so. Eighteen-eighty-late!”

“How dare you! This spectacular piece led to the birth of my sister and I many years later once financial stability was an assured facet! I, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, will stand behind my mother’s play!”

The class groaned and Mondo talked him out of it quickly saying that it would be cruel to replay someone else’s love as their own work and Ishimaru apologized with much gusto.

The scripts were decent, some were classics, but they were overdone. The small size of the Drama Club put a big lock on what they could actually perform since outside auditions were either feast or famine and a bad round of auditioning would mean they would be understaffed. This brought back flashbacks of the Drama Club’s ill attempt at doing _The Wizard of Oz_ with 10 people.

Ishimaru dug around and found one script stuck to the bottom of the box. He raised his massive brow again and leaned in. “ _The School of Despair…”_ It was a lengthy play and required fifteen ‘Super High School Level Students’ and one Mastermind. It was a story about a bunch of talented students trapped in a High School run by an evil entity that wanted to pit them against each other for some unknown reason. It involved a lot of ‘Trials’ where the audience would actually vote on who was guilty of a murder and had special executions for every character in every situation.

“What’s up, aniki?” Mondo said leaning in. “You find somethin’ good? All I found was somethin’ my dad wrote like a million years ago. I think he just ripped off Top Gun or somethin’.”

The script had a lot of the pages missing, but not in the sense that the old staples had fallen out. Pages had been ripped and others violently crossed out. The essentials were intact such as the cast, their descriptions, and all of the setting sand general plot pieces…but the ending was absolutely obliterated, like someone had tried to burn or shred it. Ishimaru felt that it could be saved though…they could fill in the blanks…maybe.

“Classmates!” Ishimaru yelled. “I have in my hands a tale of passions! A tale of good versus evil! And it’s setting? Our very school! Hope’s Peak!” Everyone crowded around and looked over the script. The reactions were favorable and everyone began talking about who they would want to audition for or who should play what.

“This has a lot of writing on it.” Mukuro said examining the pages. “Full blocking, script notes…how does everyone feel about the story?”

“This ‘SHSL Heir’ seems a bit aggressive for what I’m guessing is a protagonist, could we tone him down a bit and perhaps play with the language some? It’s very…dark.” He turned the page and looked deathly pale. “A woman gets stabbed to death in the shower…that could upset someone.”

Junko spoke up. “I don’t want to be in it, I can’t but…we could always use pink blood. Like on the shows, yeah?”

Chatter broke out as the students began to brainstorm ideas and fill in the missing blanks from the pages. The script had a curious effect on them. Oogami returned to the center of the classroom with an extremely heavy box of scripts and props and dropped them suddenly. The loud noise caused everyone to jump and huddle together. Their teacher had been exasperated before, but she looked as though she had just caught a robber breaking into her house. Rumor would later have it that when she saw the Drama Club holding that specific script, the wind would seemingly emit from her body and a pale blue aura would surround her.

“That script! It’s a cursed thing! Where did you find this?!” the teacher roared. On the exceedingly rare occasion that Ms. Oogami flipped her lid, and it was never the fault of her students, it was always Ms. Asahina that took care of it. However, she too looked furious with a wide eyed, rabid animal kind of look.

“Yeah ok! Who thinks this is funny, huh?” Aoi yelled dropping several buckets full of nails and screws on the floor. They rolled down the aisles of the theater and the students stared hopelessly at the script. Was there some rumor around school about this? There were rumors about everything ranging from Ishimaru’s eyebrows actually being live furry worms to Mondo’s pomp being an actual ear of corn.

Mondo pointed to the script and felt the hair on his neck bristle. “It….it was in the box. We just kinda found it….”

Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled. The veins on her neck were pulsating and she turned her back on her students. “I do not care how it is done. One of you take that to the paper shredder in my office and take care of it. I do not want to look at that infernal creation, let alone touch it.”

Ishimaru rose almost automatically and clutched the script in his hand. It had a curious magnetism about it. Everyone else was in love with it. Despite their own oppositions to the content or characterization, they still found something they wanted to contribute to it…regardless, he did not find the courage to speak up about it. He was a good student, he could not go against his teachers.

“I will take care of this at once. I apologize.” Ishimaru said closing his eyes. He clutched it to his chest and disappeared into the back office where Ms. Oogami kept her desk and all of the classroom related materials. He closed the door and caught Ms. Oogami roaring about how some things are best left unsaid and that any further mentioning of that script would result in a detention.

Ishimaru glanced through the pages. It was perfect. It has something for everyone. Comedy, suspense, action…it was the story of a bunch of would-be friends fighting evil.

That was when Ishimaru did something unthinkable. He slipped the script inside of his uniform and shredded several extra copies of the school newsletter her found balled up in the trash. His heart was racing and he knew what he was doing was wrong, but he felt pulled by an otherworldly force to do this.

As he left the office, the final bell sounded and school was over after some brief meaningless announcements. Mondo and Chihiro caught up to him and he gave them a shaky smile and wiped sweat from his brow.

“Hey Ishi, we’re gonna catch up on those trigonometric ratios at my aunt’s house.” Chihiro said. Their parents were on business overseas, so they were living with their aunt, uncle, and cousin until they returned.

“Yeah bro, I think the sub did a really bad job teachin’ this crap, but you two always seem to understand it.” Mondo said smiling. “’Sides, my mom said she’ll give me some cash, we can go grab some food and make a night of it!” He laughed and wrapped his arms around his friends. “Boring math and fried food, what a plan, huh?” He laughed and Chihiro smiled. They were literally the three best friends on the planet, but Ishimaru only let out a cough.

“I. I am sorry friends. I. I feel very ill.” He said wiping the sweat from his brow and touching the script inside of his uniform. “I. I do not want to contaminate you. I need to leave. Now. Goodbye.” He then ran as fast as he could out of the school doors and took a sharp right. He was home within 5 minutes and slammed the door behind him.

Chihiro and Mondo knew something was up, but they just couldn’t put their finger on it. 


	3. A Very Despairing Family Crisis

Ishimaru sat in the living room and drank a cold glass of water. He had hidden the script in the desk in his room. He looked at his hands and panted uneasily. “What have I done?” He whispered. “I’m just like a mass murderer or…or…” He let out a sob and then jumped to his feet as the door opened behind him. His sister was home.

“Hello Kiyotaka.” His sister said setting her bag by the front door. “You appear to be ill. Should I get medicine from the cabinent?” She adjusted her glasses and took a seat on the couch.

“No. I am just fine. Please, there is no need to pry!” Ishimaru said pacing around the front room wringing his hands. “Peko please you are drowning me! I need my personal space! What are you after? Are you guilty of something? Is there something you want to say?”

Peko had been cleaning her glasses but now she began to clean them violently despite keeping her usual straight face. “Ishimaru I am not guilty of anything. We are probably the most well behaved students in our respective schools.”

Ishimaru started drinking water and slammed it on the table and kept mumbling to himself. “Peko stop trying to get inside of my head. You’re projecting your own guilt on other people! I didn’t do anything wrong, stop prying into my personal life!” He glared right at her and she nearly dropped her glasses.

“Ishimaru I did not say you were guilty of anything. You are behaving in an irrational way. If you keep up this behavior, I will have no choice but to subdue you.” She picked up an umbrella from the umbrella bucket near the front door and wielded it like a sword.

Ishimaru turned and started to cry. “Peko ! Why! Why did you do it?! Why did you steal it?! You were told not to touch it but you stole it anyway!”

Peko began to sweat and the umbrella in her hand began to quiver. “Ishimaru, I feel it is you who are projecting about stealing an extra snack cake for lunch today!” She then covered her mouth and she began to breathe heavily.

“What?” Ishimaru said suddenly swallowing his own guilt.  “Snack cake?” He stared right at her and she dropped her weapon.

“Yes. I wanted two Hostess Fruit Pies today…I was dissatisfied with the flavor I had been given yesterday and felt I should be able to have two of the flavor I wanted today…” He fell limply onto the couch and let out a very soft, very Peko kind of sob. “I have dishonored myself…our family…our mother and father did not raise such a petty scoundrel…”

Ishimaru began to let out loud sobs and beat his hand against the floor. “A teacher asked me to throw something away and I didn’t! I took it with me!” He began to cry and he and Peko began to sob into pillows on the couch quietly.

“T-that’s not actually bad Kiyotaka, you were just…r-recycling.” Peko cried.

“And…and you didn’t steal, you just took an extra fruit pie for the next day…so tomorrow as long as you don’t have one, it will be fine!”

Suddenly they rationalized their behavior. Truly, they were good children, they had always been raised to be as such, but whenever they did relatively minor things such as this, they would always burst into tears. While other siblings fought or cussed in private, Peko and Kiyotaka basically grilled each other over rule breaking to rationalize their own follies. Their parents knew this too, fully, but their children never did anything bad enough to warrant even a passing comment. They felt their children’s tears were enough of a punishment.

Shortly after, Ishimaru showed his sister the script she had saved and she read through it. She made a passing mention that Hope’s Peak II was just now picking new scripts for the spring shows and hoped they found something as good as this.

“So brother, how do you intend on holding auditions if your teachers are against this script? Why are they against it?” Peko said drinking some chocolate milk from a child safety straw.

“That I do not know. She became very hostile, unlike anything I’ve ever seen her do, sister.” Ishimaru said drinking his strawberry milk with a safety straw. “I know mother and father were in Ms. Oogami’s graduating class and were also in theater, hence why it is a preapproved safe activity for us to do…but one thing always struck me as odd. Their senior year, they mention nothing about theater. Not a thing.”

The two talked for quite a long time about school and all the students misbehaving in their respective Hope’s Peaks. Pekoyama wasn’t a member of the disciplinary committee, but she was a member of the Peer Protection group where they follow a student and befriend them who is at a high risk of bullying and help them by providing emotional and academic support. Both were revered for their behavior and good grades and parent teacher conferences for the Ishimaru family were giant ego strokes for all involved.

However, grades and the like are not what was important about including this seemingly mundane revelation into how things function in this particular household. It should be known, that every evening after the family had gone to bed, Mr. and Mrs. Ishimaru would go through the nanny cameras to see what was up. A parenting magazine had stated that these teenage years were the toughest and sometimes children would go to their rooms and cuss or steal things, and it was the parents’ job to keep an eye on things!

When their son ran into his room, the camera in the hallway caught something: The few pages of text in his hands. They strained to read it, but the HD NannySnoop 41010P edition had a very powerful scope. They knew the words almost by heart.

For you see, two years ago, Hope’s Peak I had suffered the Most Despair Inducing Event in Drama Club History, a botched play that resulted in two fires, three broken legs, and a gas leak. This was bad. But many years ago, Hope’s Peak, before it was split into two nearby campuses, was torn in half from the inside out by the Truly Most Despair Inducing Event in Drama Club History.

The performance of a certain script in Ishimaru’s room had led to a disastrous event officially blacked out from every local and school publication. The old school papers simply had nothing written for that year in the 1980s for drama other than their fall production of Hamlet.

Any and all of the now-adults who were children back then deny any involvement in any sort of play and vowed to eradicate it from all being, but by some fluke or otherworldly intervention, it had risen again. They had tried to destroy it, lock it away, but the script, which was no more than several staples and a few pieces of paper, held and allure over them all.

As Kiyotaka and Peko slept in their Saf-T Budd-E Bunk Bedz, Mrs. Ishimaru made an important phone call to someone. She swore she had seen it, but wasn’t sure. The person on the other end of the line said it wasn’t a big deal and that it was 3:00am and normal people were asleep. The person then yawned and said that as long as the script wasn’t whole, and it wasn’t since they had 15 of the pages, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

But Mrs. Ishimaru still worried through the night.


	4. A Very Despairing Lunch

The Drama Club always sat together at lunch. It was an unwritten rule that was never broken. Even if you were just visiting for one production, you sat with the Drama Club. They always stuck together and had earned the title of “Badasses” due to the rumor going around that the entire Drama Club was cursed.

“I’m a little upset…” Fukawa said taking a bite of a nondescript sandwich. “That script was…so good. But…” She froze a bit and slammed a Monster Energy drink. She had been up all night writing some of her own works, to say the least, and used these babies to keep her afloat during class. “I…was so shocked to see Ms. Oogami perturbed.” She went to dig into her large bag for another energy drink since she was starting to run low, but Chihiro snatched it away.

“Let’s not get you too wound up, ok?” Chihiro said with an uneasy smile. “You’re not yourself when you drink too many of these.” And they were right. The usually calm writer was a completely different beast after three of those suckers. She would laugh loudly and spout the most unsettling things imaginable. Being caught with her in public was as good as being murdered by her because you instantly became the most watched person in the room. It was truly a fate worse than death.

Mondo arrived at the table and sat his tray down. He looked around frowned. “Any of you guys seen Ishimaru? He bugged out on us yesterday but Akane said she saw him and his sister freakin out inside of their house.” Togami went to open his mouth as if to ask why she was looking inside of her neighbor’s house but Mondo stepped in. “Yo, she was hangin upside down off of our gutters trying to paint the house because Daiya…” He looked off into the distance. “Because Daiya can’t paint the house anymore…all because of me…” He looked solemn and Chihiro put a hand on his back. “It wasn’t your fault, Mondo. Sometimes…sometimes life just works out this way.”  
Daiya was far from dead. He had been charged with painting the house and Mondo went to lend him a hand. After a few hours of painting, both of them started cracking jokes and after Mondo had made the fifteenth dog pun of the evening, Daiya laughed and fell off of the ladder. He broke his leg and couldn’t leave home to take care of the gang or paint the house.

Togami shrugged and cut into his porterhouse steak. “I do not usually peg Ishimaru as the type to freak out, but perhaps he was a little shaken about what happened in class? My father always taught me: Frailty is not something to be mocked, it is simply evidence that something elegant and small needs to be nurtured in order to stand on its own.”

Fukawa have Togami a look that appeared as if it wanted to convey ‘Aww how beautiful’ and ‘Does your dad make greeting cards? Yuck’ so she just turned her head away as usual. “I think he’s up to something…” She said curtly. “I remember in third grade Ishimaru took one of my crayons by mistake and tried to avoid everyone because he was ‘no good for society’ or something. He bought me a new pack so I didn’t care but…this looks to be the same.” She bit a baby carrot and chewed it mechanically. “He’s a weirdo about that.”

Chihiro and Mondo slumped back a bit and looked at each other. “Leave it to us.” Chihiro said avoiding eye contact from everyone else. “It sounds like whatever he did…it happened when he went into Ms. Oogami’s office…”

The conversation of the Drama Table was then interrupted by the sound of a tray slamming onto the tabletop. The portions were perfectly divided and the utensils were perfectly evened out and cleaned as they were brought from home. Ishimaru slipped in next to Togami with his usual stiff posture and took a deep breath.

“You uh…doing ok there, buddy?” Mondo said feeling his throat tighten up. Ishimaru just stared back at him, unblinking. He undid his uniform jacket and pulled out the script and slammed it onto the table.

“I am criminal scum and I deserve to be punished severely for the theft that has taken place. I am the worst human being walking this planet. I am a shame to my parents. I am a shame to my ancestors. I am a bad kid.” He quivered a bit and stared as his peers looked at the script.

Togami let out a sigh and put a hand on Ishimaru’s shoulder. “Ishimaru, I admire how you uphold the rules, but I do not believe this counts as theft. While it is true you did not destroy the script as you were told, it’s basically garbage as far as our teachers are concerned.” Ishimaru didn’t react and Togami quickly turned his head and focused on eating nervously.

Ishimaru then let out a huge breath and rubbed his temples. “No, the script is indeed garbage, but it is also in the garbage.” Everyone at the table let out a confused grunt, but it was Chihiro who noticed the difference. “Hey! This is the entire script retyped on new paper!”

“Correct. I retyped the script, what pages I had at any rate, line for line. I tried to work out some of the smudges and marred pages, so the writing may be off, but we can fix that later.” He had also replaced a lot of the swearing with his own Safe-2-Use words, but sadly, those would later be changed as well. “I also had a…shameful thought which is why I was berating myself.”

“Huh? Oh that happens, Ishimaru. It’s all a part of growing up. I had some just now.” Mondo said biting into a chicken nugget.

Everyone looked at Mondo and he choked a bit. “U-Uh go on, Ishimaru. Please. For the love of God go on.”

Ishimaru nodded and wiped the corners of his mouth with a frighteningly robotic accuracy. “My shameful thought was this: If we fill in the missing pages and alter the story while keeping true to most of the characters and themes, we won’t technically be using that cursed script. I counted roughly 15 missing pages and 10 destroyed pages I can hardly make out. I suppose to create flexibility we can change some of the genders of characters around depending on our turn out for auditions, and I suppose we will have to recreate all of the Mastermind character’s lines from scratch as all of theirs were unreadable, save for a few.”

Fukawa stopped eating and bore her gaze into Ishimaru’s red eyes. “That…that’s absolutely devious…leave it to those goody two shoes kids to be the worst…” She meant it as a joke, honestly, but she took it back the second Ishimaru looked ready to release the wet works. She casually wondered what kind of household could raise a kid like that.

Chihiro put a hand to their chin and tapped it. “It’s true, we will have to credit the original play piece, of course, but if we change most of it, it’s technically not the same thing at all. We can have a lot of freedom with rewriting some of the characters, they weren’t exactly fleshed out anyway from what the script says. They’re all basically identified by their talents and a few blurbs about their personality…we…we could really do this! Yeah! I’m all in!”

“I, as a proud member of this Club, also agree!” Togami said adjusting his glasses with vigor. “My only concern is how we will sneak this by our instructors. We can’t hold auditions for a secret play, that would be too underhanded and against class policy.”

Ishimaru tightened up and looked down at the table.

“Are you serious? You thought of that too?!” Mondo said laughing. “Wow! She really had a point huh? You good kids are some really devious thinkers!” Chihiro elbowed him and he rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly. “Sorry dude.”

“It’s alright. I suppose knowing the natural order of things makes it easier to work around it…besides, I feel this play really brings us together, it would be a crime to NOT perform it!” Ishimaru said feeling very happy with his self vindication.

“Oh so you’re rationalizing your err?” Fukawa said. Togami shot her a hard look and shook his head like a mother chiding her child for jumping on the bed. “I’m only kidding! I’m not a bad person! Ishimaru is my friend too ok! I see you all shooting me daggers…” She went back to her sandwich and frowned a bit. She whispered the phrase ‘it was worth it’ to which Chihiro whispered ‘it totally was’ and they both snickered.

Mukuro came over with Junko, the latter looking positively devious. “I can’t be in this play, but I thought I could help out.” Junko said smiling ear to ear. “Me and sis thought it over so I typed up this play about…” She pointed to her hair clips and her backpack. “Monobear! They’ll never know the difference! So just shoop this over to those old ladies, and you guys can hold the top secret auditions for the real play!”

It was Mukuro that spoke now. “I have to admit, I kind of find this sneaking around kind of fun, despite my position on the disciplinary committee…but the way I saw everyone light up…it reminded me about how things were before…That Thing happened.” Junko reeled back and she broke eye contact with the group and withdrew. “Sorry sister.”

“I’m alright, go on with your thingy…”

“Thank you.” Mukuro put a hand on her sister’s shoulder and continued. “Theater is one of the things I hold dear and I was almost destroyed when the entire group split up after a freak occurrence. When I saw all of you newer students so happy…I knew I had something to believe in.” She then put on a warm smile. “Besides, it’s only a play. I am sure we would be worse students if we cheated ourselves out of this enriching process.” She winked at Ishimaru who smiled sheepishly.

“Oh she’s doing it too…” Fukawa said into her sandwich. “I don’t get what’s so unappealing about the attractive life of an outlaw…there’s an allure to it…” She paused to make sure no one heard her and then she sighed dreamily once she realized everyone else was getting excited about their silly play.

Fukawa felt that at this moment, she had cast aside the humble, homespun writer she was who often dreamed about lawless anti-heroines and had actually become that gray morality protagonist she would often write about. She closed her eyes and imagined herself given a monologue about how the world wasn’t black and white, but was instead shades of gray. She laughed to herself and put on an awkward grin as she imagined scenes playing out before her.

“I believe there are shades of gray as well as black and white morality.” Togami said giving Fukawa a quizzical look. “Sorry, you were mumbling to yourself, I thought it was an open question, my apologies!”

Fukawa turned red and left as soon as the lunch bell rang. This happened more than one would first think. Rumor had it that once during a speech class, she started daydreaming to intensely that she hugged her bag and whispered ‘my hero’ just as she was being called on to give her presentation.

As she hurried out, the other students put together the first part of their plan. They would meet up at Chihiro’s aunt’s house after school to work on revisions and find out what holes they needed to fill. Simultaneously, they would first target students who had dropped by for a few random shows and present them with the real script so they could learn lines which would be read at the phony auditions for Junko’s fake Monobear play. The number of students on the list was small, but the students named were fairly approachable. Any of the other spots would be left to luck.  

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was just enough. Everyone swore to never betray the other members if they were caught just as they left the cafeteria.

As the group walked out laughing and chuckling, they did not catch the person who had been eavesdropping the entire time. It was a student who had strong ties to the school and a reason to snoop around. Although this student felt that they had no evidence to go off of, there was definitely a hunch worth investigating. They kept order in this school so to speak, but they were not a member of the Disciplinary Committee. They were a member of a self proclaimed more powerful third party that no one knew about.

“A loyalty oath between a group of students…”The observer mumbled heading the opposite direction of the Drama Club. “What would cause several students as unthreatening as that to form a pact?”

 


	5. A Very Despairing Shadow Game

It was after school and Mondo and Ishimaru were going to attempt to recruit two members in one fell swoop before their secret script meeting took place. They were prepared to tread into unholy ground for this project, and unfortunately, the second they stepped into class room 2-D, they were in the thick of unholy ground.

During the day, classroom 2-D was your typical chemistry laboratory with a large screen connected to a camera which was focused on the teacher’s work desk. This was so the entire class could witness the steps required in lab before being turned loose to work. By evening however, the classroom was home to two of the most ill spoken clubs in the school: The TCG and Anime Clubs.

Now, the clubs themselves and the people in them weren’t exactly the scum of the earth as some more popular students would try to imply, but some of the ugliest battles ever fought were had in either club. The anime fans, of which there were few, would come and go based on what show was the highlight of the month, but any small opinion that wasn’t supported by canon resulted in a bloody screaming match. The TCG Club was more or less the same, but the sheer competitiveness of the Club’s Captain matched with her skill made any match in her presence tough to stomach.

“Ohohohoho, it appears to wandering blades of risen to my call!” The anime club captain said scooting his small legs away from a computer. “I assume you two gentlemen are here to feast _upon Persona 4: The Animation_ presented in glorious Blu-Ray?” The portly otaku inched in a hair’s length away from Ishimaru and Mondo and held the Blu-Ray case in his hands. “Your stand tells me that you are fledglings into the world of anime, but I will craft you into true connoisseurs of such a fine art, if you will allow me.” He bowed and Mondo suddenly felt very awkward.

“N-naw, not exactly, Yamada.” Mondo said awkwardly scratching the back of his head for the second time today. “Hey uh, I wanted to talk to you about somethin’ important in science today, but I didn’t get the chance.”

Yamada looked a little hurt and he pushed his glasses up on his nose while trying to feign some sense of pride. “Ah…ah yes…so you aren’t here for my presentation?”

Mondo coughed nervously and shrugged. “I mean I would totally dig watching the 4 Persons anime and all that, but we got some stuff to do after school. But hey, if you’re down with what we wanna ask, you can come too! I’m sure Chihiro or somebody digs anime a ton. I just uh…” He noticed Yamada getting very sad very quickly. “I just can’t understand it, it’s a real artsy guy’s kind of place.”

“Hohoho! Correct you are! Sometimes I forget my place, Mondo. Forgive me for asking too much of you.” He bowed again and Ishimaru bowed back awkwardly and then shrugged. “Now, what is it you ask me?”

Ishimaru stepped forward and puffed his chest out. “You were a member of our summer production some months ago. We were very pleased with your work and we would like to invite you personally to an audition for a…very private project.” He felt very dirty with all the secrecy but it was also very intriguing to him.

Yamada looked excited, but then he frowned. “I am afraid I cannot. I truly wish I could, but I lost my soul in a shadow game to the Dark One…I cannot do anything for the rest of this month without her permission.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and frowned harder. “B-but if someone could defeat her in a Shadow Game, they would win her soul and win mine by default!”

The two Drama Brothers looked at each other and Ishimaru took out a pad and a pen. “I can wrap this up. No gambling for money, possessions, limbs, or souls on school property. Point me to her and I shall give her detention.”

Suddenly a very nasally laugh echoed from the back of the room. Everyone turned quickly and gazed upon “the Dark One” in all of her glory.

Celestia was known to cosplay some wicked creations when convention time rolled around, but the other 90% of the year, she was perhaps one of the most underdressed students in school. She wore a Hope’s Peak Hoodie over her uniform regardless of the season along with a very uninspiring pair of track pants. Her hair was literally a dome with her bangs barely styled and some of her hair was uncombed in the back.

Celes shuffled a deck of Magic: The Gathering Cards and snorted. “His soul is mine. He made a wager he just couldn’t keep. I had no interest in his stupid little comic books ,so his soul was the only fitting price.” She dropped some of the cards and picked them up while trying to make it look like she meant to do that. “If you want to wager something of great value, I will gladly wager my powers as the Dark One...so what do you bet?”

She looked right at Ishimaru who held his hands up. “I do not gamble. It is against school rules and I have a very poor poker face at Uno.” He looked proud of this fact. “I am as honest as the sun is bright!” Mondo nodded.

“Yeah, you should gamble me lady. Me and my old man and my sibs gamble it out for junk all the time. Last Saturday I got my sister out of a pack of gum, a burger, and her hair brush.” He neglected to mention that as soon as he knocked Akane out of the game, Daiya won back her stuff, took his house keys, and another pack of gum. Then, their mother took the three of them to the cleaners. They got their stuff back, but they all had to clean out the garage which was a huge pain in the rear.

Celes chuckled into her hand and sealed her Mountain Dew. “A true gambler knows how to pick her prey. An honest man has no place in the world of gamblers, so I choose Ishimaru. Our paths have crossed anyway.”

Ishimaru rubbed his temples and shrugged at Mondo. “I don’t think they have, Mondo, but if this takes too long, go on without me.”

“No way! I’m behind you 100%!” Mondo said throwing a thumbs up. “I wanna see you win Yamada’s soul back. This is like a TV show. The odds are all against you, so obviously you have to win.”

Yamada jumped up and down. “Yatta! It’s true! Many a legendary anime has this set up! The hopeless underdog always topples the horrid tyrant in the moment of truth! Save me, Ishimaru!”

Fueled by this ego stroking, Ishimaru firmly gripped his fist and shot his finger out at Celestia. “I accept! I, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, will challenge and defeat you! These are my terms! If I am the victor: You will release Yamada! Then, the both of you will heavily consider attending our audition process or stopping by our after school meeting! That is! If you want to! I just want you to be aware that you are more than welcome to show up! Mondo’s mother will be making  snacks for us! That is what I ask if I win!”

The Dark One howled with laughter and stuck her hands in a Doritos bag and popped them into her mouth  with an unsettling grace unbefitting of her way-too-plain looks. “Very well Kiyo, if I win, I want you to make up for the sins of your past! It is you who are responsible for my transformation into the Dark One! I will make you suffer! I will make you beg for mercy!” She laughed and powered herself up with a chug from her Gamer Fuel and she licked the Doritos stain off of her fingers. “I know just how to hit you where it hurts. I know the principals you abide by, so I just know how to make you squirm.” She let out another laugh and set six cards out on the desk in front of her, three for her, three for her opponent.

“The name of the game is RPS, Rock-Paper-Scissors.” She said smugly. “You choose a card and slide it face down in front of you. On the count of three, we reveal our cards at the same time and take our cards back. The first to when three out of five matches wins.”

Ishimaru raised his hand. “Why can we not just use our hands? It would be better for the cards if we saved them for a special occasion instead of ruining them by playing this way.”

“Just pick your cards goodie two shoes.” Celes quipped.

The first match was under way. Ishimaru slid a card forward and Celes looked smugly over her hand of three cards. “How should I defeat you first? Play scissors since I can tell from the movement of your eyes that you played paper?” She laughed and flipped her bowl cut. “Or should I allow you to win one out of pity and then crush your hopes?”

“Oh well if you picked rock I would lose.” Ishimaru said with a laugh. “I would just have to try harder next time to get lucky.”

Celes soured and then put on a smug face. “Really? You’re going to try and bluff me? I’ve placed at regional TCG tournaments, I know how to deal with newbs like you who think they can pull a fast one on me! I will play paper!” She slammed a card down and both revealed them.

Ishimaru had scissors, just as he had implied, and he won.

“I told you. I am very honest at all times.” Ishimaru said plainly. “Perhaps this defeat will make you see others in a better light.”

The TCG Queen mumbled something obscene and shot daggers at Yamada who was beside himself with moe boy protagonist glee. Perhaps he would be free from the horrible prison he had found himself in thanks to these strangers from another land.

“That was my pity. I’m out of it now.” Celes said rolling her eyes and finishing off the last of her Gamer Fuel. She clapped her hands and Yamada scrambled to her backpack and handed her another one while bowing.

“I set my card now.” Celes said smugly. “You won’t bluff me, but I will have you know that if you pick paper, you will lose.”

Ishimaru clapped his hands and smiled. “Thank you for the hint! I will play rock then!” They both flipped their cards and tied. Celes saved face a bit and laughed into her hand once again. “I have you entirely under my control now. I am already manipulating your very choices. The first two rounds were how I work my magic on fools like you.” She dug in her Doritos bag and cursed as it was empty. She slapped the bag to the floor and Mondo picked it up and frowned at her. She glared back at him and he glared back and sat it in her hand.

“You might be some kind of big deal in this kid’s club, but you can’t go wrecking the class. I make a night out of cleaning up this town from people like you.” He looked very threatening, but was entirely honest. “Don’t go making a mess, cause I might have to clean up the problem later on.”

“Are you trying to threaten me?” Celes fired back. “Are you going to ‘clean up my mess’ or something?”

“Oh it’s true. I help him and his gang.” Ishimaru said. “We clean up the entire city of trash.” He was oddly calm about this.

Celes put on her best poker face, but her thoughts were raging violently. Was she truly a Gambling Survivor now? Were these guys yakuza? Gangsters? That guy’s pomp looked suspicious. She was so totally zawa right now.

Celes began to sweat. “So you’re going to clean me up if you win, huh?” She said shaking.

Ishimaru nodded. “Yes. We’re cleaning up everyone we get. It’s just how it has to be. It’s the rules.”

She passed a look to Yamada and she adverted his gaze. He didn’t care if they were yakuza or moeblobs, as long as he didn’t have to pedal Celes home every night after club meeting, it wasn’t a big deal. Besides, he was at least 60% sure they were just drama kids.

“How about a bargain. Whoever wins this next match wins everything. No more games.” This stress was killing her and the sugar from the mountain dew was making her nerves act up. “If you win, you can take me back to your gang’s hideout. But if I win, I want answers. I want my revenge.”

“Yes, alright fine. Here! We’re going to be late for the meeting!” Ishimaru yelled. He slid a card forward without looking. Celes smirked and held a hand quivering with zawas over her cards. She tried to rationalize what to pick, then inspiration struck. “I wonder what would happen if I played scissors?” She said to herself. Ishimaru gave her a thumbs up and smiled.

In the end, Ishimaru lost since his tells during games of chance involved congratulating the opponent for guessing correctly.

Yamada threw himself on the floor and groveled at Celes’ feet for his crimes against the Dark One.

“Very well. My luck proved to be true.” Celes said standing up and brushing her Doritos crumbs off of her hoodie. She had thought that she was losing her touch since the little neighbor kid had totally thrashed her at the Pokemon TCG the week before.

“I lost…” Ishimaru said. “My father was correct, we Ishimaru are just not cut out to lie and gamble. Even scratch off tickets…” He rested his head in his hands and awaited his fate.

“It was years ago, Kiyotaka.” Celes said throwing her Dew in the trash because that’s what cool gamerz dew. “It was last year I guess. I don’t really do the whole calendar thing. I just go to wherever my tournaments take me.”

Mondo taped his foot impatiently.

“You stood me up Ishimaru.” She said flatly. “I left a note in your locker. I waited for days to see if you wanted to hang out. You would make for good Tourney-Candy.”

Ishimaru was taken aback and he scratched his head. “Left you hanging? Candy? I am afraid I do not know what you mean. We do not converse outside of class and one time in the fifth grade I believe you gambled me out of my lunch once.” He tilted his head and shrugged. “Chihiro found a Yu-Gi-Oh themed birthday invitation in my locker once, but the date of the party was several months prior to us finding it.”

Celes rolled her eyes and looked at Yamada. “I said locker 213 not 231, you’re the most useless soul I’ve ever won in a shadow game.”

The two began to squabble and Mondo, having had enough of this charade kicked a trashcan. “Yo! Ok, Ishimaru, do whatever you gotta do, but do it later, we got a meeting to go to! Man! Every time we do something with other kids it’s a baseball duel or a card game or Chihiro’s cousin making us run laps or something! Not today! We gotta book it!”

Ishimaru agreed to repay his debt to Celestia despite the mishap and she released Yamanda’s soul from the Shadow Realm. Both were onboard and felt that Drama Club would be a better after school event than their own dwindling clubs.  They would meet with the Club tomorrow and both signed the Audition Sign-in list before leaving.

As Mondo sped (under the speed limit) to Chihiro’s Aunt’s house with Ishimaru in tow something bothered him.

“Yo, Ishimaru?” He called out as he came to a stoplight. “How are you gonna repay skipping out on a birthday. That’s like a once a year thing.”

Ishimaru ribbed his eyes and adjusted his helmet. “Oh it is very easy. Three tournaments out of the year for Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon, I have to be her tournament boyfriend and cheer her on. I do not know what this means, but I feel cheerleading is a great way to encourage a fellow student.”

“Uh huh, and what about the rest of the year, dude?” Mondo said turning up the driveway.

“Oh then I am just her normal boyfriend and she can text me up to twice daily  during asking me “what is up” as long as it is not during class and is during a passing period and I have to carry her books.”

Mondo braked hard and looked at Ishimaru dumbfounded. “Ishimaru, you can’t just date someone because you lost a card game to them. That’s not how it works! It’s like…soft rock and like poetry and junk. That’s what my old man says.”

“It would be rude to say no, Mondo. Besides, she reminds me of my first crush, if I am permitted to talk about things publically of this nature.” Ishimaru seemingly had no problem wrong with it.

“No way! No way she does NOT look like the news lady on channel six, Ishimaru! She’s too short and she doesn’t have that mole! Don’t go besmirching Mayumi’s name like that! She puts the Action in Action News and I would appreciate if you cut out the blasphemy.”

“Now, now Mondo! I am not speaking of appearances; I am speaking of her posturing and presence in a room. It is very distant but aware, like an aunt or trusted employee.”

Mondo took his helmet off and laughed.”Man Ishimaru, you get dating less than I do! Let’s just forget about all that and get down to business, ok? We have a lot of work to do and we have two cast members too!”

“If they make the cut.” Ishimaru said flatly. “Just because I agreed to semi-date someone over a card game with a classmate’s soul at stake doesn’t mean either one of them are going to get any special breaks!”

The two laughed at this whole silly afternoon they had just experienced and walked into the house. For now, everything was fun and silly card games. However, this course of action would stand as a metaphor for future actions. Many life altering choices and gambles laid in wait in the near future. Things were about to get very serious in the span of a week and deciding what snack to have at a secret play meeting went from Priority 1 to Priority None.

Such is the way of Despair.


	6. A Very Despairing Phone Call

The meetings had occurred three times in the past week, and things were going swimmingly. Yamada and Celestia were welcome additions to the existing cast despite any sort of offbeat behavior they displayed. Mukuro operated under the principal that life was a stage and that it was less trouble to try and figure out why people behaved the way they did than it was to just deal with their actions. If they didn’t hurt anyone or bother anything, it wasn’t a big deal.

When she patrolled the school during her free period, she lived by this principal as well. She had a job to do, especially as the senior member of the disciplinary committee, so she had an example to set for other students and for Ishimaru who often let his passion heat up at the wrong time. Despite this, troublemakers in the school still found her to be the bad cop in any situation because there was no negotiating with her. She moved like a soldier and her orders were to keep the school in line, and orders were not to be disobeyed.

Fifteen minutes into her shift, she swung by the locker rooms and listened in for any signs of distress. Both rooms were empty since the weather was still decent enough for outdoor activity. Out of habit she went to sweep the gym for any students cutting class or for any misplaced valuables she could lock up in the lost and found.

Mukuro frowned as she walked out with three cell phones in hand. “These are expensive…” She mumbled. “You can’t just leave this wherever you want to. Someone will take them.” With a sigh she sat down three “TAKEN TO LOST AND FOUND” cards and turned to leave. She was finding more of these things despite the cost of the smart phones climbing each month.

That was when the lights went out. Mukuro took a deep breath and put the phones into her pocket. There was the gentle sound of a door shutting. “Please turn the lights back on. It’s against the rules to touch switches without permissions!” She called out into the darkness. No one responded. “I can take a good joke, but this is a safety concern, someone could fall or trip over the backpacks! Turn the lights on or I shall do it.”

She thought the heard the sound of someone tip toeing near where the students threw their bags and tripping, but when she ran over to the area, she heard nothing.

From the center of the gymnasium floor came a generic ringtone. A phone lit up and vibrated. Mukuro had already swept the gym once and there had been nothing at the half court line, so someone had intentionally put it there. It was considered rude to answer someone else’s phone, but something told her that it had been placed there specifically.

Mukuro slowly moved towards the phone and answered it just as the ringtone died.

“You’re playing with fire.” The caller said. Their voice was obscured slightly, like someone trying to impersonate a burly man while talking into their hand.

“Who is this? This isn’t funny.” Mukuro said flatly. “If you cut this out now and apologize, I’ll spare you.” This was one of those jokes that had gone too far, providing it was a joke. This was something out of those spy movies that she always found creepy.

“I’ve been following you. All of you.” The caller said between breaths. Whoever they were, they were having quite the time doing this voice.

“All of you? Stalking is a crime. You can’t even joke about something like this. I could file a police report.” Mukuro said coldly. She always managed to keep her cool, but this was quickly becoming something bigger than a glorified hall monitor position.

There was silence on the other side, then suddenly the caller spoke. Mukuro thought she had heard coughing on the other line. Whoever this mystery agent was, they had underestimated how long they were going to be putting on that voice. “I’m not after you and your friends.” There was a cough. “I’m above your jurisdiction…I’m a power greater than you…”

“Then who are you? A teacher?” Mukuro said angrily.

“Destroy that script. Put on a nice play. Do not bring Despair into this school.” The caller then disconnected just as they were about to start another string of cryptic rants and Mukuro looked at the phone she had picked up and almost dropped it in shock. The wallpaper was more than familiar to her. It was the entire Ishimaru family at an amusement park. They were all staring at the camera with an unbreakable focus.

“No…Ishimaru would never do this.” Mukuro ran over the facts of what just happened and it didn’t add up. The voice didn’t match him at all, even if he was pulling a prank and he never so much as joked. She went through the call history and frowned. The caller was calling from a withheld number, it would be impossible to put a pin on them.

Ishimaru was supposed to be in Gym class right now, so Mukuro exited the gymnasium and walked out onto the field with a hard look. She found Ishimaru, Mondo, Chihiro, and Celestia on the innermost part of the track. Mondo and Ishimaru were instructing the other two on how to do push ups properly. In the distance she could see Mondo and Ishimaru dropping down and belting out sets of five push ups with great ease. Chihiro strained a bit and turned out five shaky push ups and Celes went down low and then froze. The other three cheered her on and just as she pulled herself up halfway, she plopped to the ground.

“Hey, good enough!” Mondo said. “You guys will get it, you just have to keep working on it each day!”

Celes picked herself up and spit some grass out of her mouth with a blank look. “I have been told I have very powerful wrists and fingers due to all of my card handling. I can do without bulky arms.” Everyone laughed and even she cracked a slight grin.

They all froze when Mukuro marched over.

“Are you alright?” Chihrio said wiping some sweat from their brow. “You look very upset…s-sorry if I’m prying.”

Mukuro stood in front of Ishimaru and glared at him. He stared back at attention and the two remained frozen.

“Where is your phone, Ishimaru?” Mukuro said flatly. He pointed at Chihiro who stepped forward. They reached into their hoodie pocket and pulled out everyone’s phone.

“I watch the phones since I usually just walk the track.” Chihiro said slightly embarrassed. “I’ve just now started working out harder.” They dug around and then froze. “I have three phones…mine, Mondo’s, and hers…but….I don’t have yours, Ishimaru!” Chihiro started shaking and checked all of their pockets frantically.

“That’s because I have it.” Mukuro said holding the plain white cell phone. She handed it to Ishimaru who looked puzzled.

Mukuro explained what had happened in the gym with the lights and the mysterious caller. Everyone offered up their phones without a problem except Celes who didn’t know Mukuro that well.

“Yeah you can check to see who I called, but don’t go rummaging through my messages.” She then flashed a devious grin. “You might not be able to handle what you see.”

The senior disciplinary committee member analyzed that no one had made any calls since early in the morning, and it was just Peko calling to make sure he made it to school ok, and then two calls to his parents likely to tell them the same. Celes’ phone had virtually no recent calls but her inbox was cluttered with at least ten conversations. Out of curiosity she took a look at a few and concluded she was keeping in touch with some friends from Hope’s Peak II, her parents, her sister, some of the members from the drama club, and Ishimaru (with 120 total messages between them).

She read a few wondering what they even talked about.

hey wat up kiyo

All of her messages were short and to the point, but then she took a look at the things Ishimaru was saying over the span of eight text messages.

I am doing well. I currently have no tasks

at hand as I have completed all of my

homework for the day before I made

my way home. How are you doing

this day? I……….

The message droned on and on and looked more like an essay than casual conversation. Celes however was much less wordy.

lol nerd wtf

p dum @ my house

sister hoggin couch want

2 c wat on tv

She was thankful and also a little disappointed that this was the extent of what she saw.

“It is unacceptable to be harassed like this!” Ishimaru said taking his phone and looking through it. “I cannot believe someone would use the lights without permission, steal my phone, and then set this up! And what did they mean by what they said?!” He was fuming and Mondo looked upset to say the least.

“I’m gonna break their freakin’ neck for trying to freak us out like that. No one takes my friends’ phone and nobody threatens my other friends!” He clenched his fist and started yelling into the air. Other students running on the outside part of the field who were sweaty and tired from their workouts stopped and looked at him then kept running. One student however kept jogging by and wasn’t winded at all.

Mukuro watched this student and put a hand on her chin. She caught her glancing specifically at the group in the middle of the field and she was oddly enough not plastered in sweat like the other students. Perhaps she was a good athlete, or perhaps she had snuck off and had just now rejoined the class.

“Chihiro, did you ever set Ishimaru’s phone down, even for a second?” Mukuro asked keeping her eyes on the runner.

Chihiro thought for a moment and shrugged. “When we agreed to learn how to do push ups, I sat them down on the bleachers so I could tie my shoes up and hand them to Mondo, but it could only have been for…” They paused. “Well I started talking to Ishimaru about proper form…” Chihiro then frowned and bit their lip. “Maybe it was six minutes. I-I was really interested.”

“Did anyone come near you?” Mukuro said leaning closer.

“N-not that I s-s-saw!” Chihiro said feeling as if a giant burning spotlight was on them. “I wasn’t really paying attention…I wanted to do a good job.”

Mukuro calmed down and apologized. It was too much to ask all of this, but whoever had this stupid plan in mind had been observing the three inseparable friends (and Celes) in this class. They had to know of Chihiro holding the phones, fixing their shoes ritualistically, and where they went. It wasn’t out of the question for them to just hide under the bleachers and take it like a pick pocket… but still, there was no hard evidence.

The student who was running around on the track slowed and she locked eyes with Mukuro who suddenly clenched her fist. The hall monitor began to walk towards the track and the girl stood there. Just as she opened her mouth to say “hey don’t move!” the girl dropped to the ground and clutched her knee. She kept the same, unfeeling straight face on and the teacher blew a whistle.

“Huh? You fall down?” The gym teacher yelled. “C’mon, I’ll help you to the infirmary, the rest of you take 5 minutes.” The teacher jogged over and lifted the girl up and began to help her walk back into the school building. She turned to look right back at Mukuro and then turned her head away.

“Do any of you know who that was?” Mukuro said with a distressed expression. The four of them shrugged.

“I’ve seen her before, but not in this period.” Chihiro said. “I’ve seen her in the halls maybe, but she never talks to me.” They looked at their shoes and frowned. “I never see her with anyone, but then again I never see her anywhere. Maybe she’s a year ahead or a year behind us?”

“That had to be the caller.” Mukuro said. “If you guys see her, let me know ok. I want to have a word with her.”

“What makes you so sure?” Celes said with an eye roll. “A little paranoid, but whatever.” She laughed to herself and waved her fingers around. “Spooky, some mystery lady is mad about a play.”

Mondo begrudgingly sided with her. “Yeah, that’s a little much, huh? Why would some kid at our school care? She’s not even in our class, yeah?”

“That’s what bugs me…” Mukuro said. “You remember how our teachers behaved…what if there truly is something more to this script than we realize?”

Rumor had it that there was, and perhaps this was the one rumor around school that was true. That, and the rumor about the haunted backstage area of the theater. Skeletons were never the subject of myth.


	7. A Very Despairing Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirigiri is a huge dork.

Kyouko Kirigiri arrived at her home and narrowed her eyes. Her family cared for her, and she supposed that she was obligated to care for them, but they didn’t get her. They didn’t see what she saw, they didn’t think the way she thought. Even though her father was the Headmaster of Hope’s Peak I, he didn’t see the horror brewing right under his nose.

She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. Her mother opened it and smiled a shark toothed grin. She had her purple hair in a pink braid and wiped her hands off on her blindingly bright yellow jumpsuit. “Hey there darlin’, you don’t have to ring the doorbell. Mama gave you a key you can use.”

Kirigiri gazed at her mother, her eyes focused and calculating. She flipped her braid and stepped inside past her mother. With her back to her, she spoke. “You should always check the door.” She said flatly. “It could be someone trying to pose as me and…” She walked off midsentence and started up the stairs.

“Oh, right. I never thought of that. Sorry, darlin’.” Mrs. Kirigiri said smiling awkwardly. “Hey well, before you go up them stairs, could you help me and yer brother an’ me in the kitchen? We got ourselves a big ol’ mess.”

Reluctantly, the true visionary of the Kirigiri family stepped into the kitchen. Her brother popped out from beneath the sink. “Oh howdy there, sissy.” Kazuichi “Kaz” Kirigiri said just as he took a pressurized blast of water from the pipes to his face. “Could you be a buddy and hold this here flashlight?” He tossed one out and she caught it apathetically. “So anyway mama, like I was sayin’, my buddy over there at school was tellin’ me about this thing they’re gonna do and a lot of people are gonna do it. Think it’d be a problem?”

“Oh well son, yanno I like you bein’ involved at school, a’course you can.” The caring shark mouthed mother said lugging a tool box over to the sink. “Here baby, you’re gonna need this here wrench, I bought it yesterday, it’s a mite better fer ya’.” Kazuichi took it and started tightening the pipes underneath the sink.

Kyouko flipped her braid and put a hand thoughtfully onto her chin. “I found some leads.” She said flatly. “But you wouldn’t understand.”

“Now, now, we’re always interested in what yer doin’ at school! Ain’t we Kaz?”

“Yup! So what do you have leads on? Someone stealin’ desserts at lunch or cheatin’?” Kaz said putting the finishing touches on the sink.

Kirigiri crossed her arms. “The case is serious, it’s…” She then turned and walked off midsentence. She felt as though she was on the verge of a serious breakthrough. She would often leave conversations midway if inspiration dawned on her. Others didn’t truly “get” her so she often didn’t wind up at birthday parties or gatherings, but she didn’t mind. She operated from the shadows. She had to protect her father’s school.

Up in her room, there was an entire suspect wall dedicated to the mystery that was unfolding at Hope’s Peak I. Various school photos of the drama club were hung with care and beneath their headshots were various notes she had taken. Various colors of yarn linked them together in a maze of relationships.

Kirigiri placed a piece of yarn connecting Mukuro to Mondo and another to Chihiro. She put up a post it that read “Friendly: Cahoots likely.” And nodded. They weren’t mere Drama Club pals, they were some sort of deeper connection to it. They had something horrible in their possession, but how could they know what it was truly capable of? That information had been locked away for years…did they truly not know what they were getting into?

She picked up Chihiro’s profile post-it and examined it.

_Fujisaki. Downloaded viruses to school computers freshman year by “mistake”_

_Currently living with relatives._

_Lactose intolerant._

_Close confidant of Ishimaru and Oowada. Possible lover?_

She paused and made an addition to the last bit based on her findings today.

_Fujisaki. Downloaded viruses to school computers freshman year by “mistake”_

_Currently living with relatives._

_Lactose intolerant._

_~~Close confidant of Ishimaru and Oowada. Possible lover?~~ _

**_Being trained by Oowada and Ishimaru for…defensive reasons?_ **

It wasn’t a big lead, but it was something. Kirigiri’s current hypothesis stated that the Drama Club had somehow came into possession of a banned script. Speaking with their teacher seemingly confirmed that it had been destroyed, but based on overheard conversations and their most recent behavior, the script was most likely in their possession. They were also making plans to perform it illegally and were training their weaker members like Fujisaki to be combat ready…were they going to use the Despair Script to overthrow the school? Were they perhaps not mere students but members of some sort of elite Illuminati group? The possibilities boggled her mind.

“Are they raising a private army?” She said softly. “No. I wouldn’t put it past them.” She refused to acknowledge that the script they likely held was cursed and it had sucked them in, but she still put it on her list of possibilities. With a great mind like hers, nothing was truly ever out of the question.

There was suddenly a knock on the door and Kirigiri threw herself in front of her suspect web.

“Huh? Oh it’s jus’ me sissy.” Kaz said slowly stepping into the room. He recalled being hit with a bookend when he snuck in uninvited sometime last spring. “He uh, I wanted to see how you was doin’ an’ all. You’ve been kinda hush hush for a few weeks.”

“I am just fine. Better than ever.” She replied straightening her braid. “I am just busy. I am just consumed by my work. I have so much to do. I doubt you should concern yourself with it.”

“Well I was jus’—“ He was then cut off.

“I work alone, brother.” She said flatly. “I can’t risk you being involved. Mama…” She paused and closed her eyes. A relapse. “Our mother would be upset if you succumbed to the criminal wiles I face each day protecting our father’s school. So git lost….” She paused again. “I meant to say: Get lost.”

The older sibling frowned, exposing his shark like teeth and he moved in closer. “Hey uh, can we ‘rap’ or whatever. I feel like I’m losin’ ya baby sister…” She melted a bit but remained apathetic on the surface when he spoke those words.  “Ma thinks you’re bein’ bullied and you’re shuttin’ yerself up and everythin’. She wanted to kinda ask ya’ if you should maybe hang out with some friends ‘er somethin’. Heck, me an’ her will talk all proper if y’a want.” He smiled and looked at her.

Kyouko coughed and cleared her throat. “This is none of y’alls con….This is none of your concern, brother. I work alone by choice. My lifestyle is very attractive, but by nature I cannot invite everyone into it, for their own safety. I doubt you would understand a double edged lifestyle like mine. It’s detective work, not everyone can handle this lone wolf path.”

He shrugged and looked a little upset. “Well I guess so…but I was jus’ gonna tell ya’ that maybe a club would be fun!” He smiled again and adjusted his beanie. “One a’ my buddies at school said I’d be good fer a part so I’m gonna join Hope’s Peak II’s actin’ club! I’m kina excited! Maybe you should join yer school’s club?”

Kirigiri’s eyes shot open as she was hit by inspiration. “Perhaps the best way to infiltrate them is to become one of them…then perhaps I could…” She attempted to walk off in the middle of a sentence for dramatic effect, but Kazuichi was standing in front of the only door out. “Perhaps I could join them….no! It would be too dangerous. What if I joined them as an alter ego? Yes….” She smiled contently and flipped her braid. “You’ve inspired me, please go on.”

Kaz shrugged. “Well, that’s about it. It looks like a fun lil’ play and all that.”

“You have helped me free up some time, so I will ask you this freely: What is your production called?” Kiyouko wondered what kind of play he would be so interested in. Engines and repairs were his game, not exactly fine thespian art.

“Oh somethin’ I ain’t never heard of. Somethin’ somethin’ of Despair Part II but we don’t got no part one, so we’re just gonna call it the Island of Despair…”

Kiyouko Kirigiri froze.

The second half of the School of Despair script was recovered, unknown to all parties except Kirigiri. However, unlike the comparatively ignorant students of Hope’s Peak II who had found their own script through sheer luck and sought to perform it for just the sake of fun, certain entities within Hope’s Peak II hoped that a performance of at least one of the scripts would…have the same curiously despairing effect it had nearly 30 years ago.


	8. A Very Despairing VHS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is right before brief skip in time. I meant to update this fic truly I did but then RP happened. I'm garbage.

Every now and again, the Ishimaru parents and the Oowada parents would meet for “post-work beverages” and be gone for a few hours. These meetings were brief and mostly for a moment’s rest when the children were younger, but now that they were older, they lasted most of the evening. Daiya assumed sitting roles even though his younger siblings and the Ishimaru kids were teenagers, but with his leg not quite done healing from his ladder incident some time ago, he could use some easy extra cash…not that he truly minded.

The gang was clustered in the garage which was a nexus for all things the Oowadas had owned and then suddenly “put up for later” without much thought. It was time to clean it and Daiya was in no shape to do it despite repeated promises that he was ‘good to go’ but after some wheeling and dealing he had agreed to split the more than ample amount of cash he was to be given with the four younger scamps in exchange for their help. He liked company when he worked anyway. He was starting to miss his gang even though they visited often to deliver their progress reports.

“Yo so you got a girlfriend? Is that what I heard?” Akane said hefting a dust old cardboard box full of year old magazines into a corner. “I got just the thing for a total baby like you. This is what talks.” She dug through the box and produced a pulpy dating magazine and handed it to him. “Everyone I know reads these so like, they have to be good or whatever.”

Ishimaru took the magazine and flipped a few pages. “It is more complicated than that. This is all over a card game.” He said mildly trying to find the table of contents.

Akane smirked and kicked another box over with her feet. “Ya don’t have to be embarrassed by it. It’s really freakin’ rude to feel ashamed of someone you’re all kissy with. I didn’t expect that kinda junk form you, Kiyo.”

Mondo butted in after throwing a huge pile of old shingles onto the floor. “Nah sis, he was like won in a card game. I keep tellin’ him it was a joke but he’s bein’ all….them about it.” In the Oowada house, the ‘being all them’ line was a popular catch-all for their neighbors and childhood friends which basically meant that Peko and Kiyotaka were acting like upstanding, totally clueless, good two-shoes straight edge toddlers despite circumstance. Their parents used the phrase to motivate their own kids into doing stuff like mowing the grass and not throwing their clothes everywhere.

“That’s messed up.” Akane said. “How’d you feel about it Peeks?” She said poking her head into Peko’s face. “Baby Kiyo growin’ up so fast and junk…it’s gotta be tough. Mondo doesn’t have a chick though so I guess he’s still a baby.” Mondo started cussing but everyone was interrupted by Ishimaru screaming.

“Y-YOU DO WHAT WITH YOUR MOUTH?” Ishimaru roared throwing the magazine across the garage. The magazine was full of all sorts of awful “tips” and “tricks” on things you could do with candy. It was one of the more tame magazines, but for the reader in question, it was a whole new terrifying world.  He threw the magazine and it knocked over a modest pile of junk in the garage.

“Hey bud, you have to go pick that stuff up.” Daiya said rubbing his forehead. “I had that pile up to the ceiling to I wouldn’t have to clean around over there!”

Kiyotaka apologized and drudged his way over to where he had knocked over junk so old that it probably came with the house. He slipped and stumbled and his bro Mondo went to help him up. The both of them tripped on a vintage 80s lamp all the colors of the gaudy 80s rainbow and they knocked over a molded box full of VHS tapes.

Everyone became mystified by the tapes for one reason or another. Things like “Mondo birthday” and “Wedding-without the screaming” were the titles. Talk of finding a VCR to play them in for sick kicks arose despite Owari and Mondo drawing lines in the sand about leaving their first birthdays off the playlist.

The group got a big laugh until one VHS tape slid out of an old envelope into a pile of old plates. It startled Ishimaru who picked it up and raised a gargantuan eyebrow and bumped Mondo with his elbow.

“Huh? What is it? Is it my birth vid ‘cause I REALLY don’t want anyone seein’ that.” Mondo whispered. “I mean we’re bros and all but c’mon you gotta know when to put up some boundaries, Ishimaru.

“No, Mondo, take a look…this label says…The High School of Dspair…”

“You mean like…”

“Certainly…”

The tape would be passed around in secret for the next two weeks, its contents so horrifying that the wills of the students involved almost crumbled…but from what they saw, they began to nurture a small hope. Though they only caught the first 10 seconds of the Most Despairing Event in Hope’s Peak history…it was gruesome…

It would not be until Byakuya Togami was caught watching the tape by his parents 15 days later that Despair would over come hope…


	9. A Very Despairing Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the part where everything falls to shit and it's Togami's fault you lil' fucker.

Byakuya Togami sat in his room idly waiting on a delivery. To about anyone else, what he considered to be a “modest room” was the size of most smaller homes. All of the rooms in the Togami Family Mansion were like this. It had always been this way for as long as anyone could remember. Though this newer generation of the Togami Family (always, always, always a proper noun) practiced modesty and felt wealth was best spent on the community as opposed to on luxury, they didn’t exactly NOT make use of what they already technically owned.

“I have acquired the device you requested.” A maid said bowing to the younger Togami. She handed him a VCR and he thanked her. “Will that be all?”

“I appreciate your assistance.” Togami said graciously. “That will be all, please, do as you will. I could have gotten the VCR myself. Do not trouble yourself on my behalf. I am very capable.”

The staffer nodded and smiled. “The basement is no place for a young heir. After all, it is currently the 4:00pm “Jam Session” with the other members of the staff and the Lady. As she has warned, things are a little too “metal” for a young one such as yourself.” She bowed and then left.

Togami sighed heavily and rested his hand over his heart. “I thought I would surely be caught by now…this deceit is so stressful…” He took off his glasses which, for the record, cost about as much as Mondo’s bike, and sighed. He opened his closet (which itself was the size of Ishimaru’s living room), and leapt backward an expensive new guitar nearly fell on him. Another misguided present.

_TO BYA: ROCK ON!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! –Your mom_

“I wish she wouldn’t do that.” Togami said setting the guitar and the note with his other twelve guitars. “I haven’t learned how to play any of the other instruments she’s given me, I’m starting to feel like a bad son.” He made a note to get himself caught playing it in the middle of the night to show his appreciation.

He dug through his items some more and located his hidden television. It was small, at least small enough to be hidden by a wall of electric guitars, and was hardly touched. Togami didn’t believe in watching too much TV, so he kept it for special occasions such as those awful pulp mystery shows that came on early in the morning in the summer. He connected the VCR and inserted the VHS which had passed hands amongst members of the Drama Club for two weeks cautiously. As each member had seen the tape, their expressions changed in reference to the play…he had been afraid to see it, but he had to now.

The video began with someone adjusting the camcorder and muttering. It was a male voice, but the speaker was never in the shot, save for his hand. He got the camera perfectly aligned and after a span of time, people began to fill the seats of Hope’s Peak I’s theater. Based on their gaudy attire and hairstyles, it was the 80s.

The lights soon went down and suddenly a young woman appeared on stage and stood with a stiff, almost mechanical posture. She looked a lot like Peko, but her serious gaze, lack of glasses, and massive eyebrows made her look more like Ishimaru in a wig and leg warmers.

“Attention: Parents, fellow students, and community members. We are proud to present a two part experience. Please turn off all Walkmans and pay attention….” She began to rattle off all essential facts such as fire escapes, proper play etiquette, and what to do if your one piece was too bright and disturbing other guests.

The play began and it was entrancing. The references to popular culture were obviously dated as were the costumes, but the characters on stage appealed to his humors despite being conceived decades ago. He recognized a few faces as the parents of his classmates, but he already knew that Fukawa’s father was in theater. An artistic family like that always had deep roots in everything creative. In this place he was the Super High School Level Heart Throb. From what Togami gathered, he was a bookworm who wrote about romance novels but whenever he sneezed, he transformed into the epitome of all 1980s movie cute guys but couldn’t stop looking at himself in the mirror. It reminded him of the character they were rewriting in theirs which ironically, Fukawa was playing.

After a while, Togami forgot he was watching the play to take notes and became totally engrossed in it. The audience actually had a hand in voting on the culprits as one of the “dead” cast members would walk the aisles collecting slips and counting them off stage. At first, the audience seemed reluctant, but as things went on, the crowd became more animated and attached to the characters. After the third trial, audience members were screaming as Ishimaru’s mother was executed comically on stage by being placed in “Super Detention” for the murders of the Super High School Level Punk and Super High School Level Wrestler which looked uncannily like Ms. Oogami.

He assumed that the play was set up so that depending on who was executed (and in the trials, it was narrowed down to two very plausible choices for audience voting), the following scenes would be altered slightly. It would take a lot of work to memorize a few altered lines if the scenes got too drastic, but cutting out the audience voting mechanic would be cruel!

The play went on and as the conclusion ran its course Togami began to lose track of time. Hours had slipped by like minutes and from what he could make out in the grainy VHS, the audience had nowhere to be except glued to their seats. He felt a resolve to complete this play and generate this kind of action.

Something unexpected then happened…the date on the camera listed things as taking place six hours later in the afternoon with “Part II” of the play. He recognized a few of the students from the first production walking around backstage as if they were the ones handling lights and the like, but the cast was on stage. The theater was packed and Togami recognized a lot of the people entering their seats as being repeat patrons.

The play was the “sequel” to the first one and put on by the other half of the drama club. The survivors of the first play joked on stage with one another as things were setting up. Soon, the lights went down and a new cast appeared on a tropical island. From what he gathered, this second one followed the same style but was much more comedic. The first one had plenty of humor, but things on stage seemed less tense and the “Super High School Level” students had lighter talents like being the Arcade King or the Super High School Level Groupie.

“W-what is this?” Togami whispered leaning closer to the screen. He recognized his father as the Super High School Level Rich Kid in the first play and he was reprising his role again, but with a fake mustache on. He talked with a fake accent and kept trying to get a hold of blackmail from other students. He put a hand over his mouth when his mother appeared…well…just as she usually did now, except she had a Bon Jovi shirt on and broke out into what were then modern lyrics instead of what she called “The Good Old Stuff” now.

Just as he thought of bringing up the sight he was seeing to his family, he bit his tongue. Ishimaru had made him promise he would tell no one about the tape and he was to keep all of his notes hidden. Togami wondered if Ishimaru was worried their parents would get upset over some old, deeply embarrassing nostalgia, but as if to answer his question, the video cut out. It was as if part of it was cut out or blighted. It would cut in with various parts of the play, but then all he heard was screaming and angry shouting. He caught the glimpse of audience members rushing the stage in distress, then as the picture stabilized after some faster forwarding.

The set was ruined and the theater deserted. It was ominous. There was belligerent yelling off in the distance, then the camera simply went dark. He had no idea what was happening, but he was terrified. Something had happened…it was almost magical (in the worst way) the way he had been so drawn in and then suddenly terrified by the play.

“Your mom is so not cool with this.” A voice said from outside of the closet which had been left wide open. “Like this is b-b-b-bad to the bone, Byakuya. Your mom thinks this is serious and she like…isn’t playing around.” She angrily spelled the word “Trouble” and then shredded on her guitar chidingly. She pulled out a cellphone and never once took her eyes off of her son. “Ibuki says you should stop working and come upstairs. She’s pretty sure you’re gonna be so freaked out. Kiss kiss fall in love goodbye.”

Five minutes later, Togami found himself sitting in the living room with his mother angrily fiddling with one of her lip piercings and shaking her multicolored hair. He passed a look at one of her music awards on the mantle then looked back at her sheepishly. His mother didn’t get angry, nor did his father. They explained things to him and asked him to do better if he did something by mistake, but he hardly ever erred.

The door opened and Togami Sr. appeared. He was a much more healthy size than his son, but was otherwise identical to him. He took a seat next to his spouse and adjusted his glasses. “Salutations everyone. Apologies for my tardiness, I was finishing a phone call.”

“Ibuki hopes she didn’t interrupt anything, but she took a break from kicking it old school to check on her son, and then….” She frowned, something she never ever did, and shook her head.

“Oh it’s quite alright, my dear. The world would be a less fulfilling place if you didn’t shred four times a day. It is truly a gift I am fortunate enough to witness each and every day until my life ends.” He was truly a god-like figure, Togami Sr, he had the patience of a saint and the capabilities of a professional in any field. He was the obvious black sheep in a family that had once been reviled for its devilish cunning and no-mercy business style.

“Father I…”

“Son, I understand that we all must…go through changes in life.” The elder Togami said clearing his throat nervously. “I…can only assume the terror you felt when your mother walked in your room as you were perhaps kissing another woman, but it is ok. I suppose even the most protective of bird should let their young fly freely.” He closed his eyes and nodded. “Why, I recall that night your mother and I shared our first kiss it…” He was elbowed and Ibuki whispered something in his ear. As she went on, his eyes got wider and more filled with fear. Soon his face contorted into a grimace and he appeared to brace himself as if he was about to take a drop on a roller coaster.

“Byakuya Togami.” He said. “Tell me of this VHS tape you have somehow gotten a hold of.”

Togami froze and his palms began to sweat. He had no backbone for things like this. The Super High School Level Rich Boy did in the play, but he was no heartless businessman, he was a student caught red handed. “VHS tape…I was…borrowing it to research…previous decades.”

Ibuki shot her hand out accusingly. “Your mom is deeply hurt that you’re lying to her! After she raised you from a baby Bya to a big Byakuya, she never thought you would lie to her face! Shot through the heart and you’re to blame! You’re giving your mom a bad name!”

Her topical 80s lyrics hit him in his soul and he leaned forward shamefully. He was caught, there was no way he was getting out of this. If only he had been more careful. “I…I borrowed this tape….for theater. We came across a script by accident…we…we enjoyed it but our instructor got angry with us over it! But…but we had to have it! So we’ve been working on this…for weeks! Parents! You must understand! We…I had no idea!”

The room grew silent, that hot, electrical kind of silent. “Who discovered this VHS tape?” Togami Sr. said coldly. For someone so gentle and loving, this sudden lack of empathy was shocking. “I would like a short answer. Do not further the shame of lying to your mother by trying to protect someone for….for this travesty!” He wiped his face with a handkerchief and adjusted his glasses nervously. “Speak son, I can feel my blood pressure rising.”

“…K-kiyotaka Ishimaru and Mondo Oowada discovered it…we’ve all seen it…in hopes that we could complete what parts of the script we didn’t have!” Togami blurted out, his face as red as the fire in the fireplace.

The silence returned and both of his parents stood at the same time with an eerie synchronization. “Togami.” His father said. “Go to bed. Your mother and I need to discuss. Close your door.”

And so he closed his door.

And so they discussed.

 


End file.
